There was no initial word on damage or injury resulting from the quake. More information on this earthquake is available on the USGS event page.

A recent study indicates earthquake activity increases in the dryer season, so it's natural to see more quakes this time of year, as the weight of all the snow and water begins to lift, allowing the crust to rise.

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"It's not like we're seeing an earthquake season, but the timing of this water unloading is when we're (historically) getting more earthquakes," said Chris Johnson, a graduate student at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and one of the study's two authors.

In a story on SFGATE earlier in June, Kurtis Alexander reported:

In the eastern Sierra, the researchers reported observing increased fault movement with snowmelt in late spring and summer. Closer to the coast, in such spots as the San Andreas Fault, they tracked greater quake activity in summer and early fall with drying streams and soils.

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Although the uptick in quakes is modest during such drying periods, the research marks headway on the vexing question of how natural forces contribute to earthquakes. Scientists have had limited success explaining how such events as rain and faraway geologic activity might prompt local temblors. The UC Berkeley researchers make a strong case for how the water cycle connects to seismic shifts, their peers say.

"We have a pretty good understanding of earthquakes on a basic level and why they happen," said Nicholas van der Elst, a research geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena, who had not seen the paper but studies earthquake triggers. "However, we don't know things like how quickly stress accumulates and what is the breaking point of a fault."